Light Up the Night (+ Giveaway!!!)

  

For some, the months of winter are dreaded days. The trifecta of cold, wet weather, minimal daylight hours, and time spent indoors renders them cranky and dispirited. For me, though, this is a glorious time of year.

A perennial homebody, I can contentedly go for days at a stretch without leaving the property. In fact, I just did this very thing, sticking around chez English this past Tuesday through Sunday (although, admittedly, the stomach flu played a vital hand in that situation). As a stay-at-home writing living in the country, and now a full-time mom (Huxley has yet to be babysat, and we're in no great rush to change that), it's easy to pass the days around the house without feeling the need to make the trek into town. Writing, baking, cooking, playing, and exploring outdoors characterize our days, while the light from the wood stove, Christmas tree, and candles light up our nights.

I'm also a huge fan of well-placed lighting, and proper indoor lighting come winter is, I believe, essential to making it through the season with your sanity intact. We use CFL bulbs in every lamp in our home. The soft glow they produce is warm and inviting, perfect for nights sequestered indoors when the ground is covered in snow and the streets are slick with ice. Compared to incandescent light bulbs, CFL's use considerably less energy (up to 75%) and have a much longer lifespan (up to 10x's). They do, though, contain trace bits of mercury and must be disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner. That's become increasingly easier to do these days, with large retailers such as Home Depot and Lowes offering CFL recycling stations in their stores.

Which all brings me to today's giveaway. Hubs was picking up some homesteaderly provisions at Lowe's a few weeks ago (probably wood for the recycling station he just built-post forthcoming) and found an incredible deal being offered. The home building retailer recently partnered with Progress Energy for a home energy efficiency initiative and was selling packages of CFL bulbs for way, way less than they're regularly priced. He stocked up on boxes of them, with a few to present as a giveaway. And, so, today's small measure giveaway is for a whole mess of bulbs, so that you too can save energy while lighting up the darkest time of the year.

The CFL package I'll be giving away includes:
1) Two packages of six 18W (incandescent 75W) bulbs, for a total of 12
2) One package of six 23W (incandescent 100W) bulbs
3) One monster package of eighteen 13W (incandescent 60W) bulbs
This totals 36 bulbs. That's a lot of energy efficient lighting, folks! CFL bulbs will easily fit into any lamp or light socket that accepts standard incandescent bulbs, for those that might be less familiar with them.

To enter, simply leave a comment telling me any small steps you've made towards being more energy efficient. One we employ during the colder months is the use of heavy curtains at night over several older windows downstairs. We replaced a lot of windows prior to Huxley's birth, to maximize the heat potential of the wood stove during cold weather, but left 4 old, sash-style windows, as we hope to eventually do some remodeling in those rooms. Until that day comes, we use the heavy curtains, drawing them shut once the sun sets.

Please leave a means of reaching you in your comment, either via a link to your own blog or website or include your email address. I'll run the giveaway for one week, ending next Monday, December 19th at midnight EST. Canadians, feel free to give it a go.

Until then, please know that, cheesy though it may sound, YOU truly light up my life. I love the community blogging creates and I can't thank you enough for taking the time to stop by here and check out my ramblings, musings, and spiels. You're amazing.

Now, get to commenting and, again, may the odds be ever in your favor ;^)

UPDATE:  The winner of the giveaway, chosen by the Random Widget, is Martha, number #52. Thank you so very much to everyone that entered. Look for lots of great giveaways coming up in the next few weeks!